anyone know of anyway to counter steeping too hot?

anyone know of anyway to counter steeping too hot?

speacialty grains were:
--0.75 lbs Gambrinus Honey Malt
--0.25 lbs Dingemans Biscuit


I just did an extract batch a few nights ago (Cream Ale) and while for the first 10 minutes I was within range (160-150'). I turned my back working on some siphon tubing and turned back to the stove to find the temp shooting up and the water turning to a boil (approx 190'+ from my quick glance). I took the pot off the burner and let it cool down. it cooled quick, about 1 min FWIR.

I put the pot back on and kept the temp below 170' for the remander of the steep.

should I have just pulled the steeping bag right then andd there?

is there anything I could have done before fermenting to counter act the tannins that might be present OR anything I can do now?

or is it a case of 'it is what it is'?

You could have pulled it out... or you could have added a little cold water to your pot to bring down the temperature.

when you are about 10-20 degrees close to your steeping temp, lower the heat on the burner...and pay better attention.

You could switch to all-grain...no more steeping!!!

But really, cut the heat like Revvy says about 10 degrees before it hits desired temp. It will continue to go up a little.

Sometimes when I steep, I take the pot off heat entirely and wrap it up in old blankets or a comforter. Helps retain the temp range for about 30 minutes or so. If you end up dropping too low, just put it back on the heat to raise it to the desired range.

First, I doubt you'll have a problem. Extracting tannins takes a while. Second, if you do have a tannin problem, gelatin can be used to remove it. Gelatin also clears the beer.

TheMan said:

You could switch to all-grain...no more steeping!!!

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HA nice, it's been in the back of my mind. I'm looking to get sanitation and te chnique down before venturing further

thanks for all the advice

sillyburt said:

HA nice, it's been in the back of my mind. I'm looking to get sanitation and te chnique down before venturing further

thanks for all the advice

Click to expand...

Good answer!!!

I've noticed that a lot of newer homebrewer's see All-Grain as the holy mecca of beer perfection, like the minute they put the braid on their cooler and fire up the propane, their beer is "magically" going to be perfect.

To be honest, if their process sucked as an extract brewer...adding more variables to the mix, as comes with brewing all grain, is just going to increase the potential suckiness....Not make their poorly made beer magically better.

Glad to see you want to perfect the basics first.

maintaining steep temp is not important. heat the water up to about 170 then take it off the heat and steep with the lid on the pot.

Revvy said:

Good answer!!!

To be honest, if their process sucked as an extract brewer...adding more variables to the mix, as comes with brewing all grain, is just going to increase the potential suckiness....Not make their poorly made beer magically better.

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I like that answer.. I always enjoy your posts Revvy..

Revvy said:

I've noticed that a lot of newer homebrewer's see All-Grain as the holy mecca of beer perfection, like the minute they put the braid on their cooler and fire up the propane, their beer is "magically" going to be perfect.

Click to expand...

yeah in the short few months I've been spendin gtime on here I've seen alot of people jump right in feet first. I took my time a bit more though. I didn't want to have my first few batches come out bad and get discouraged and then quite.

although I must say I think my first two batches were messed up. I still haven't figured it out. I lean towards an infection and afterwards I found cracks in my auto-siphon. for the time being I'm leaving the AS out of the process.

for now I'll be doing stove top brewing only. if that means I can only do extracts then so be it. until I can get a few extract batches down really good I don't see any sense in complicated brewing. I would like to start doing all grain on the stove and I've seen the posts about how to do that as well. the savings in $$ would be worth heading towards that anyways.

I'm with you Sillyburt, and I do enjoy reading what Rev has to say.

For me, I'm still new as well, but doing extracts is pretty easy. I'm not moving on any time soon, I'm just saying that it is really hard to mess up the process. I'm like you though, I'd like to get my technique and sanitation down first before I add the all grain process. Actually, I don't know that I'll do a lot of all grains until I can make up or really custom some recipes first. I'd really like to know the process inside and out so I can eventually make some good recipes and be really consistent with a lot of the flavors and attributes.

Of course, it is homebrewing, so a little variability is always a good thing.

Good luck!

david_42 said:

First, I doubt you'll have a problem. Extracting tannins takes a while. Second, if you do have a tannin problem, gelatin can be used to remove it. Gelatin also clears the beer.

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Gelatin takes out tannins too? I didn't think they were big enough for gelatin to collect. Cool.

david_42 said:

First, I doubt you'll have a problem. Extracting tannins takes a while. Second, if you do have a tannin problem, gelatin can be used to remove it. Gelatin also clears the beer.

Click to expand...

I am new to brewing and never used gelatin and would like a clearer beer. When do you add the gelatin?

thanks for input.

it doesn't sound like I have much to worry about with the tannins.

beerguy2009 said:

I am new to brewing and never used gelatin and would like a clearer beer. When do you add the gelatin?

Click to expand...

however if I wanted to kill two birds with one stone and wanted to quelch any tannins and clear the beer further....regarding cold crashing and gelatin....

should i sterilize the gelatin and add it, then cold crash adn then bottle?

I got this from ireg pulse from another recent thread "I started leaving all beers in primary for 1 month, then adding gelatin and cold crashing to clear, (into the primary) then racking to keg."

I'm tryin to make the cream ale clear but if it tastes good that's the most important thing to me, second is tryng to make it really clear (as well as learning how to clear it up with other batches both future and present)....BTW it's been sitting on trub for 2 weeks+. I'm thinking of bottling next weekend